My Restless Knight

Moll Rogers had a long, mostly loving marriage to Sir John Harington. Sir John a godson of Queen Elizabeth I, was a courtier, port, wit, scamp, dog-lover, jailbird, sanitary engineer (he invested the water-flushing lavatory), briefly a soldier in Ireland and an indefatigable traveller through England and Wales. In My Restless Knight, Moll is seen casting and often sardonic eye, during his absences, over his multifarious writings, including his many private letters. The poems he wrote to her she finds sometimes exasperating, sometimes consoling. He also wrote several to her mother. These were not always conciliatory. His letter to noblemen and gentlemen is seen to give Moll an unusually clear insight into the life of the court. Her duties with her large family meant that she rarely got to go there with her husband. He, however, was often there, dancing in attendance to his godmother the Queen.